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Cheers, hugs for 81st soldiers

Mar-10-2005 » Filed Under: General Military

Soldiers from the WA National Guard (81st BCT) continue to trickle home to warm welcomes.

Link to Full Article
ADAM LYNN; The News Tribune

LaRee Holcomb looked a little tired as she watched her four young children scramble around inside Soldiers Field House at Fort Lewis early Wednesday morning.

For the better part of a year, she’s played single mom while her husband, Spc. Errol Holcomb, served in Iraq with the Washington National Guard’s 81st Brigade Combat Team.

In about an hour, he would march back into their lives, and LaRee could hardly wait.

“It’ll be great to have him home,” the Poulsbo resident said. “I can’t wait to have reinforcements.”

That was a common sentiment among the nearly 1,000 relatives and friends who gathered at the field house to welcome the 1st Battalion, 303rd Armor, a subordinate unit of the 81st Brigade.

A year ago, their husbands, wives, sons and daughters uprooted themselves from their civilian lives and went off to war. Now, they are coming home to fill voids that were keenly felt.

Most members of the 1-303rd, normally headquartered in Kent, spent their deployment at Camp Victory near Baghdad International Airport, guarding the huge post’s gates and walls, running combat operations outside the wire and spending money to improve the lives of Iraqis living in the surrounding neighborhoods.

In all, about 4,000 brigade soldiers deployed to various posts in the Middle East, including Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Nearly half have returned home. The rest are expected by the end of the month.


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